PSYCH 101: Exam 4 Study Guide| Latest Updated 2025/2026 (Graded A+)
Social Psychology ✔️Scientific study of how a person's behavior, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence
of others
Conformity ✔️Changing behavior to closely match with others
Compliance ✔️Changing ones behavior as a result of other people directly asking for the change
Obedience ✔️Changing one's behavior at the command of a real or perceived authority figure
Milgram's experiment was meant to see how far ordinary, rational, people would go with the harmful act of shocking another human being
based on the orders of an "authority figure" ✔️What was Stanley Milgram's study? What was he trying to measure?
It proved that blind obedience, or obedience without question, is normal ✔️What did Milgram's experiment prove?
Cognitive Dissonance ✔️Discomfort when our behavior doesn't match our attitude
When Kitty Genovese was coming home one night, she was attacked and stabbed multiple times. The event was heard and observed by her
neighbors, but it took a while for anyone to take action and call the police. As a result of this, Kitty died. ✔️Summarize the tragic story of Kitty
Genovese.
Helping becomes less likely as the number of bystanders increases ✔️What does the bystander effect suggest?
When more people are present, one thinks the others share responsibility, so they're less likely to help ✔️What does diffusion of responsibility
suggest?
Aggression ✔️Behavior intended to hurt another person
Social Role ✔️Pattern of behavior expected of a person in a particular social position
Personality ✔️A unique way in which people think, feel, and behave throughout life
Id, Ego, Superego ✔️Freud suggests personality can be divided into these three divisions.
Id ✔️Unconscious division of personality that's ruled by the pleasure principle (little regard for consequences)
Ego ✔️Develops from a need to deal with reality; ruled by the reality principle
Superego ✔️Moral center and conscience of personality
Defense Mechanisms ✔️Unconscious distortion of reality to reduce stress and anxiety for the ego
Denial ✔️Defense mechanism in which a person refuses to acknowledge a threatening situation
Repression ✔️Defense mechanism in which a person refuses to consciously remember a threatening or unacceptable event
Projection ✔️Defense mechanism in which one's own image from within is put onto someone else
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Personal Development ✔️Suggests personality is determined by developing sexuality of the child; each stage
based on an erogenous zone that becomes a possible source of conflict
Fixation ✔️Conflicts that aren't resolved
Stage 1 in the Psychosexual Stages of Personal Developement
• mouth = erogenous zone
• main pleasure/concern is feeding
• id dominates
• primary conflict is weaning ✔️Oral Stage (Infancy)
If oral needs overindulge: Tendency to be too dependent on others and optimism
Social Psychology ✔️Scientific study of how a person's behavior, thoughts, and feelings are influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence
of others
Conformity ✔️Changing behavior to closely match with others
Compliance ✔️Changing ones behavior as a result of other people directly asking for the change
Obedience ✔️Changing one's behavior at the command of a real or perceived authority figure
Milgram's experiment was meant to see how far ordinary, rational, people would go with the harmful act of shocking another human being
based on the orders of an "authority figure" ✔️What was Stanley Milgram's study? What was he trying to measure?
It proved that blind obedience, or obedience without question, is normal ✔️What did Milgram's experiment prove?
Cognitive Dissonance ✔️Discomfort when our behavior doesn't match our attitude
When Kitty Genovese was coming home one night, she was attacked and stabbed multiple times. The event was heard and observed by her
neighbors, but it took a while for anyone to take action and call the police. As a result of this, Kitty died. ✔️Summarize the tragic story of Kitty
Genovese.
Helping becomes less likely as the number of bystanders increases ✔️What does the bystander effect suggest?
When more people are present, one thinks the others share responsibility, so they're less likely to help ✔️What does diffusion of responsibility
suggest?
Aggression ✔️Behavior intended to hurt another person
Social Role ✔️Pattern of behavior expected of a person in a particular social position
Personality ✔️A unique way in which people think, feel, and behave throughout life
Id, Ego, Superego ✔️Freud suggests personality can be divided into these three divisions.
Id ✔️Unconscious division of personality that's ruled by the pleasure principle (little regard for consequences)
Ego ✔️Develops from a need to deal with reality; ruled by the reality principle
Superego ✔️Moral center and conscience of personality
Defense Mechanisms ✔️Unconscious distortion of reality to reduce stress and anxiety for the ego
Denial ✔️Defense mechanism in which a person refuses to acknowledge a threatening situation
Repression ✔️Defense mechanism in which a person refuses to consciously remember a threatening or unacceptable event
Projection ✔️Defense mechanism in which one's own image from within is put onto someone else
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Personal Development ✔️Suggests personality is determined by developing sexuality of the child; each stage
based on an erogenous zone that becomes a possible source of conflict
Fixation ✔️Conflicts that aren't resolved
Stage 1 in the Psychosexual Stages of Personal Developement
• mouth = erogenous zone
• main pleasure/concern is feeding
• id dominates
• primary conflict is weaning ✔️Oral Stage (Infancy)
If oral needs overindulge: Tendency to be too dependent on others and optimism
